Xinjiang unrest 'not ethnic'

Violent unrest in China's mainly Muslim western Xinjiang province in early July left at least 200 people dead as ethnic Uighurs clashed with Han Chinese and security forces.

China blamed separatists wanting the region to breakaway from China for the riots, while many Uighurs complained that political, cultural and religious repression by the Chinese government in Beijing led to the violence.

Predominantly Muslim Turkey, which shares linguistic and cultural links with the Uighurs, criticised Beijing over its response to what it called "a kind of genocide" and Iran spoke to Beijing about "concerns among Islamic countries".

However, the response from much of the rest of the Muslim and Arab world was muted

Wu Sike, China’s special envoy to the Middle East, told Al Jazeera during a visit to Qatar that his country had always maintained good relations with the region and these would not be harmed by events in Xinjiang.

Al Jazeera: What happened in Xinjiang?

Wu Sike: Chinese relations with Arabs and Muslims date back to two or three millennia.

Therefore I hope our friends in the region would understand what happened in Xinjiang, where a minority of criminals tried to instigate violence against innocent civilians, in a bid to split the province from China.